"Cultivate curiosity in high school" is a sentence that Mr. Yau Shing-tung repeatedly mentioned at the final award ceremony, and the entries in the computer science field are the best interpretation of this sentence.

Yesterday, we invited Dr. Wu, the director of academic teaching and research of Embark, to give a special lecture on the Yau Science Awards computer science. During the lecture, Dr. Wu reviewed the Yau Science Awards computer finals and shared his unique views on this track and his interpretation and analysis of the winning works. Let's review this wonderful lecture together !

The most comprehensive popular science! What is the Yau Science Awards?

The S.-T. Yau High School Science Award is a middle school science innovation award initiated by the mathematics master Yau Shing-tung in 2008. It is a scientific competition based on "scientific research academic papers" and "professional academic defense". It advocates innovative thinking and teamwork, abandons test papers and standard answers, and participates in the form of submitting papers.

The Yau Science Award for High School has developed from a single mathematics award fifteen years ago to today's mathematics award, physics award, chemistry award, biology award, computer award and economic and financial modeling award, and has been selected for the 2022-2025 academic year Ministry of Education competition white list, which has a high influence both at home and abroad.

Official website: [2] http://www.yau-awards.com/

Division of three major competition areas of Yau Science Awards

l Mainland China Division

Students in major middle schools in mainland China (only high school students), each subject is divided into southern and northern evaluation, and the mathematics award also has an eastern division

l Asia Division

Except mainland China, middle school students in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and other Asian countries

l North America Division

Except Asian countries, middle school students in other overseas countries

If you are lucky enough to enter the finals of the Yau Science Awards and win the award, you will have the opportunity to receive a letter of recommendation written by Mr. Yau himself. Even if you don't win the award, this complete scientific research experience and paper results can also become an indispensable finishing touch in your application.

The following are the reasons why Yau Science Awards attracts many young people every year.

International influence

So far, Yau Science Awards has been successfully held for fifteen sessions, with more than 2,000 middle schools and more than 12,000 teams participating, covering more than 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China and many overseas countries such as the United States and Singapore. A total of more than 850 people from more than 461 student teams have been awarded, and more than 450 well-known professors and scientists from all over the world serve as judges or consultants for the award.

Successful application assistance

More than 1/2 of the winning middle school students have been recommended to study at well-known Chinese and foreign universities such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Harvard, MIT, Yale and Princeton. Among them, there are many scientific research talents who still insist on academic research after entering their ideal universities.

02 Yau Science Awards computer review trend

In recent years, with the popularization of AI and ChatGPT, the technical application of Yau Science Awards computer entries has gradually transformed from the original programming to artificial intelligence. The quality of the entries continues to improve, and the review of computer disciplines has become more and more strict. Dr. Wu summarized the review trends of Yau Science Awards [3] in recent years into the following 6 points：

• Summary of review trends
• Discipline relevance
• Importance of topic selection
• Originality and advancement of theory or technology
• Correctness of results
• Teamwork
• Academic norms

A good start is half the battle, and a topic suitable for Yau Science Awards[4] can make contestants more powerful. Students' research topics can be either basic theoretical research or exploration of technical issues, but no matter which one, the results must have a certain impact on the development of a certain direction in the field of computer science and technology.

Yau Science Awards Computer Award-winning works interpretation

In the 2023 computer works, most projects involve ChatGPT and AI4Science. Most of the winning papers revolve around AI in LIFE, which is a very good way to grasp the "little psychology" of the organizing committee.

First, let's take a look at the winning works that won the 2023 Computer Discipline Gold Award

The computer gold award project is about the analysis of the importance of words and subwords in the English language. This project can be said to be unique among many computer projects. At first glance, the project does not use cutting-edge AI models, but mainly uses the more traditional word2vec method.

However, this project comes from students' interest in word formation in SAT and TOEFL, combining artificial intelligence technology with linguistics and sociology. The calculation results of this paper show that the weights of subwords representing occupational roles and gender roles in gender-related words have changed significantly over time and social development; in contrast, the weights of words and subwords in compound proper nouns in the natural science field are close and remain stable.

The whole project reflects the children's interest and enthusiasm, the ability to discover and solve problems, and gives technology a warmer feeling.

Looking at the finalists of the 2023 computer finals, the following projects also attracted our attention.

Since the establishment of the computer award in 2017, the Yau Science Awards computer award-winning projects have been closely linked to the forefront of science and technology. For example, the release of ChatGPT in November 2022 attracted people's attention to the Large Language Model (LLM). This year's finals saw the use of LLM to solve mathematical geometry problems and LLM for chart analysis.

In the competition, AI-related works are also brilliant

Yau Science Awards Computer Finals Winning Works

Yau Science Awards Computer Finals Shortlisted Works

The development of AI has also changed other disciplines. AI and mathematics, AI and physics, and AI and biology are also everywhere in the Yau Science Awards winning papers. These cross-disciplinary topic selection ideas give us more choices.

Finally, Dr. Wu’s summary of the computer track:

Don’t think that as long as it is related to the forefront of science and technology, you will definitely win the award. We need to use these technologies reasonably according to the research questions. Blind use will only give people the feeling of model stacking.

Yau Science Awards Paper Writing Tips

Yau Science Awards hopes that our middle school students can have curiosity about science and the ability to discover and solve problems, so the most important topic selection must be based on this. Students need to dig out and narrate their own scientific research stories. An excellent Yau Science Awards paper needs to:

• Have academic value
• Conform to academic thinking
• Meet academic standards

The purpose of the Yau Science Awards paper is to reflect the scientific literacy and scientific research potential of high school students, so that universities can discover talented high school students. The length is usually about 20-30 pages of A4 paper, covering background introduction, research results and research process.

• Background introduction

Detailed background introduction and theoretical introduction, and you can also show your understanding of these theories

• Research results

The content of the paper shows important research results and part of the research process, and fully and detailedly introduces the research process

• Research process

Detailed description of the experimental process, photos of working in the laboratory, and screenshots of the programming process

Scientific research competitions are cyclical projects, and students need to continue to invest every week to obtain relatively satisfactory outputs. High school students are busy with their studies. If the reserved preparation time is insufficient, it may lead to a loss of balance between the two!

How can children spend their time on the cutting edge? It is particularly important to find the right direction, tailor academic planning, and match topics!

Now is the best time to prepare for the 2024 Yau Science Awards! Determine the project as early as possible, arrange the progress reasonably, and leave enough time for polishing to increase the probability of winning! Students who are interested in participating in the competition must hurry up!

Want a consultant to make targeted plans based on your child's situation? Want to learn about Yau Science Awards Online Training[5] ? Welcome to consult Embark!

Click the link to view other articles of the Yau Science Awards:

1. Explore the Yau Science Award Mathematics Track: Cultivate Curiosity and Innovate Research Methods
2. Comprehensive Analysis of the Yau Science Awards: Insights, Highlights, and Preparation Strategies
3. 2024 Yau Science Awards Preparation Guide - Biology
4. 2024 Yau Science Awards Competition Preparation Guide - Chemistry Subject

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